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Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Bob Evans in Newport Closes Permanently

Bob Evans in the Newport Shopping Center has closed permanently after 22 years.

Employees were informed of the news by management on Tuesday, October 3, at 3:00 p.m. They were given a two-week severance package and are able to transfer to any of the 14 locations in the 275-loop.

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In April, Bob Evans sold their restaurant chain to Golden Gate Capital, which split the restaurants from the food division, which makes mashed potatoes, sausage and various side dishes.

The Ohio-headquartered Bob Evans sold to the private equity firm for $565 million. The sale of the restaurant comes months after the company announced it would close 27 locations back in April of this year.

Fort Thomas Matters spoke to a manager with knowledge of the Newport location. He said that sales were down 25% over the last two years and attributed the decline to the growth of Newport Pavilion.

"Our lease made it prohibitive to our long-term survival. We signed a long-term lease before the Pavilion development came to fruition and had we known that was happening, we probably wouldn't have signed the deal," said the manager who asked to remain nameless. "We held out a year longer than we should have because we were hopeful Walmart was coming to Newport, but it didn't look like that was ever going to happen."
He said that in his market, Bob Evans has closed or expects to close 12 total locations in the next year.

Locally in northern Kentucky, there are restaurants located in Cold Spring and Fort Wright.